Luggage carrier



Oct. 7. 1 1,510,604

E. F. PAWSAT LUGGAGE CARRIER Filed June 9, 1922 ATTORNEYS.

Patented Oat. 'Z, 1924..

- arren stares isiaeai rase TUBING 00., or SHEBOYGAN, WISCONSIN, n CORPORATION or, WISCONSIN.

, LUGGAGE CARRIER.

Application filed June 9, 1922. Serial No. 566,982.

T all 10 7mm it may concern:

Be it known that I, EWALD F. PAwsA'r, a citizen of the United States, residing at Sheboygan, county of Sheboygan, and State of l Visconsin, have invented new and useful Improvements in Luggage Carriers, of which the following is a specification.

This invention relates to improvements in luggage carriers.

It is an object of this invention to produce a luggage carrier which can be manufactured more cheaply than it has hitherto been possible to manufacture a carrier of this type.

It is a further object of this invention to provide a collapsible luggage carrier, susceptible of cheap manufacture, which will operate more smoothly and easily than carriers of this type which have heretofore been made, 7

It is a further important object of this invention to providea luggage carrier having the advantages enumerated above, which,

at the same time, will have unusual strength and rigidity and will fold with unusual compactness for the purpose of storage.

In the drawings:

Figure 1 is a side elevation of my improved luggage carrier, showing it as it appears when applied to the running board of a vehicle in position for use, the length of the carrier being decreased by breaking away portions thereof.

Figure 2' is a front elevation of the structure shown in Figure 1.

Figure '3 is a view upon a reduced scale, showing the compactness of my improved luggage carrier when folded.

Like parts are identified by the same reference characters throughout the a several views. I g

The luggage carrier herein disclosed is of the familiar'type which may be collapsed for storage or distended for use upon the lazy-tongs principle. The body of the car rier comprisesa plurality of bars or links 5', the adjacentupper extremities of which are pivotally connected by pins or rivets 6 as shown inFigure 1,.the centers or inter mediate portions of the bars being connected by similaryrivets 7 and the lower extremities by rivets or pins 8.' This manner of manufacturing the body portion of a luggage-carrier is well known in the art and is not con sidered to need further description.

At each end of the lazy-tongs structure, which comprises the body of, the luggage carrier, I provide an end support of peculiar construction. This support includes a clamping member 10 (see Figure 2) which is made in the form of a broad U, one arm 11 thereof being considerably longer than thev -A screw 18 is threaded other arm 12. through the sliorterarin 12 and is provided at its upper end with a swivelly mounted head l l adapted to bear (against the lower surface of the running board of a vehicle.

Themode of attachment of'the clamping device 10 to the running board clearly ap-y pears in Figure 2. The longer arm 11 is adapted to rest fiat upon the'upper surface of running board 15, whilethe shorter arm 12 extends beneath the under side" of the running board and brings the screw 13 intooperative position to enable the swiveled head 14 to be turned up with clamping p'ressure upon the under side of the board.

' The lazy-tong structure is supported from the clamping device 10 by means of a"ro d 16 of circularcross section, which is bent to form a substantially rectangularframe in" the manner clearly-shown in F igureQ. rod passes through an opening in the longer leg 11 of the U-sl'iaped clamping frame 10" and thence downwardly through a corresponding opening in the shorter leg 1210f the U-shaped member. At 17, beneath the shorter leg 12, the rod 16 is riveted. Obviously, any desired means may be used'for' securing this rod tov the legs ofthe U-sha-pedclamp 10 through which it passes.

The mountingof-rod 16in both of the elements 11 and 12, which make up the U-shaped clamping member 10, gives this rod a great deal of inherent rigidity. and

stability. From this mountingit ris tically and constitutes a slide for the ver-' tica'llv movablemembers 1 8 and 19 to which the eiids of the laZy-tongbmembers 5 are se cured Above member 19 the rod 16 is bent at right angles to form the horizontal upper member 20, and thereafter is bent at right angles downwardly at 21. The extremity er the substantially vertical portion 21; of rod 16 passes at. 22 through the inner end :of

the longer arm 11 of the U-shaped'clamping device 10 and maybe riveted or otherwise secured thereto at 23.

It will be' clearly. understood 'if ther rod'16 were bent to form a triangularinmes.-

stead of a rectangular frame, the rigidity of the structure would be fully as great, if not greater. It is only essential that a substantially vertical slide be provided for the hearing clips 18 and 19 at the front of the frame. The form of the remainder of the frame is not particularly material, except that some advantage is to be derived from the use of a substantially rectangular construction, due to the fact that this frame serves as an end section to the enclosed portion of the running board and serves to confine suit cases or other pieces of luggage from moving longitudinally along the running board out of the closure of the luggage carrier.

The bearing clips 18 and 19 may be of identical construction. Each is in the form of a broad U, each arm of which is bored to receive the vertical portion of rod 16 with a sliding fit. By providing two widely separated bearing points for the clip I have succeeded in making a bearing clip which does not bind but moves smoothly and with out chattering upon rod 16. The clips 18 and 19 are pivotally secured by rivets or pins 25 to the upper and lower ends respec tively of two overlapping bars which are pivotally joined at 7 in the manner shown in Figure 1. Vhen the lazy-tong frame is expanded or contracted the bearing clips 18 and 19 will have a relative vertical movement upon the supporting rod 16. This movement takes place with great freedom, due to the provision of a bearing for said rod in each arm of the clips 18 and 19. if it were not for this dual bearing, with which each of said clips is provided, the angular movement of the two bars 5 relative to eacl other would tend to cause the clips to cramp with respect to the supporting rod 16. Such cramping actually occurs where single bearing is provided in a clip of this type. It will be apparent, therefore, that l: have succeeded in devising an end support for a luggage carrier of this type, which is simple and may be cheaply constructed and which is nevertheless more easily and satisfactorily operable than any corresponding structure which has hitherto been available.

It is important to note that each clip 18 and 19 is free to move upon the vertical rod 16. Furthermore, this rod is of sufficient height so that even when said clips are separated to their maximum extent they do not reach the extremities of their possible movement. It follows that at any time, whether the lazy-tongs frame be fully collapsed or fully distended, it is possible to move either end of the frame vertically relative to the end support. The advantage of this con struction will appear later.

At the center of the lazy-tongs frame I have provided an L-shaped member 26 which is pivoted to the frame by an extended bolt or rivet 8, whereby two adjacent bars 5 are pivotally connected. To this l..-shaped member 26 I attach by suitable rivets 27 a el-shaped clamping device 10, the legs 11 and 12 of which may be substantially of equal length. A clamping screw 13 is threaded in the leg 19/ of the clamping member 10 and is thereby brought into a position where it maybe operatively brought to bear upon the under side of the running board 15 to clamp said board between the screw 13 and the upper leg 11 of the U-shaped member.

It will be understood that with the luggage carrier in use the upper arms 11 of the clamping members of the two end sup ports and the corresponding but shorter arm 11 of the centrally disposed clamping menr her will lie substantially in a common plane. The bearing clips 18 and 19 being free to move vertically upon rod 16 of the end supports will naturally seek a position upon said supports in which they are shown in Figure 1. lVhen the carrier is folded. how ever, to the position in which it appears in Figure 3, the lazy-tongs frame will first be collapsed and may then be laid flat upon some suitable supporting surface as it appears in Figure 3. The bearing clips 18 and 19 permit rod 16 to move not only axially but also rotatively, and it is therefore possible for the end supports to be rotated within the bearings provided by said clips to a mutually overlapping position.

it has previously been explained that while the arms 11, 11, and 11 normally lie in a common plane, it is neverthelesspossible to move either of the end supports rela tive to clips 18 and 19 even when said clips are at their maximum distension, as they are when the lazy-tongs frame is folded or collapsed. Accordingly, it will be noted in Figure 3 that the left hand end support has first been folded over the lazy-tongs frame with the arm 11 above arm 11 of the center clamping member. The right hand supporting device has then been folded to the left and has been pulled downwardly througl'i the clips 18 and 19 to clear the under side of arm 11 of the central clamping device. It can clearly be seen that the entire rectangular frames, comprised of rods 16, are vertically displaced in Figure 3. The possibility of thus displacing the frames to permit them to assume the mutual overlapping position in which they are shown makes the collapsed luggage carrier extremely compact and therefore increases its value.

I claim:

1. A luggage carrier including a lazytongs body of pivotally connected bars, a U-shaped bearing clip provided with registering openings in each of its arms and pivotally connected to one of said bars, a clamping device adapted to be engaged upon clamp and threaded through the apertures of each of said clips, whereby each clip is provided with a sliding bearing upon said rod and is prevented from binding thereon.

3. A collapsible luggage carrier including a U-shaped clamping element provided with apertured arms, a rod disposed vertically within the apertures of said arms, a set of U-shaped bearing clips having arms apertured to receive said rod and provided with a sliding bearin thereon, and a collapsible i lazy-tongs frame pivotally supported from said clips.

4. A collapsible luggage carrier including a U-shaped clamping element provided with apertured arms, the upper of said arms being of a length comparable to the width of a vehicle running board, a rod having one portion displaced vertically within the apertures of said arms and secured therein, and a second portion bent rearwardly and brought into engagement with the inner extremity of said upper arm, whereby the vertical portion of said rod is made rigid with respect to said clamping element, a collapsible frame, and means for slidably and rotatably connecting the end of said frame to the vertical portion of said rod.

5. A luggage carrier including a U-shaped clamping element provided with an elongated arm apertured adjacent its base and adjacent its extremity and with a shorter arm provided with an aperture adjacent its a clamping device adapted for engagement with a vehicle running board and provided with upper and lower arms, a rod, connected at both of its ends to said clamping device and bent to form a rigid frame having one substantially vertical element, U-shaped bearing clips provided with apertured arms threaded upon said rod and slidable thereon, and a lazy-tongs frame pivotally connected at its end to said bearing clips.

7. A collapsible luggage carrier including a clamping member adapted for engagement with a vehicle running board and provided with upper and lowerarms, rods each engaged at one end with both arms of the clamping member and engaged at their other end with the upper arm of the same mem-- ber and bent intermediate their ends to form a rigid frame having a portion extending vertically above each member, U-shaped bearing clips slidably mounted upon the vertically extending portion of each rod, a lazy-tongs device pivotally connected at its ends with the several bearing clips, and a clamping device pivotally connected with the lazy-tongs device intermediate of said end clamping members, the vertically extending portions of said rods being greater in length than the maximum distension of said bearing clips, whereby said end clamping members may be overlapped by vertically displacing them relative to one another and to said central clamping member.

EWALD F. PAWSAT. 

